Contact Center Technology Answers for Mobile Customer Care

Has your company adapted the contact center environment for mobile customers? What are you waiting for? Fast IT is the new sheriff in town and mobility should be right at the top of corporate IT roadmaps. Agile methodologies are quickly becoming standard practice utilized across all facets of organizations to adapt and survive the fast changing technology landscape. According to a reputable industry source (Gartner, June 2014) mobile devices have long surpassed traditional desktop and laptop computer sales. Smartphone and tablets are no longer a niche industry. Adapting your contact center to respond quickly to the mobile customer will require a new way of doing business and adding new tricks to your customer care magic act to maintain success.

Listed below are some new technology options and descriptions of how to possibly use them in your mobile customer care toolkit. Contact centers will need these options to respond to their mobile customer base or risk those users slipping away to the competition.

1. Callback – Your Company has just released a slick new smartphone app and everyone in sales is excited about the possibilities of connecting with customers and selling more. Why not add a callback application to the app to facilitate and increase sales? Advances in contact center technology allow for callbacks and connecting sales agents with the customer. This simple solution should be part of your contact center infrastructure and if it’s not, time to find a new technology vendor. Don’t just limit it to sales; other applications may include technical support, investor relations, etc.

2. Visual IVRs – Many corporate IVR menus are a complex mess. How many times have you had to spend several minutes of your time navigating 5 levels deep into IVR voice purgatory and still not get to the to the proper option? It’s vaguely similar to opening a fragile box you received in the mail and wading through the packing peanuts to find your glass vase was cracked. Meet with your smartphone developer’s and build robust visual IVR menus into your mobile applications to make it easier for the customer to contact customer care and get the proper help. Properly built menus will enhance the customer experience, collect customer data, and get the customer to the correct agent in a timely manner.

3. Video – WebRTC, while relatively new, is something that should not be ignored. If you have attended any industry trade shows lately, you may have heard that in the not too distant future WebRTC enabled video agents are expected to proliferate and become part of the everyday customer care service. Stay a step ahead of the competition and check out the latest offerings from the various vendors today that are in the space. You may find that you implement this technology sooner rather than later.

4. Social Customer Care – This area cannot be overlooked. Everyone and everybody use smartphones. Customers are documenting daily activities such as what they eat for lunch, where they went for a drink after work, how many jumping jacks they did at the gym, etc. Do you have a way to respond to customers when they comment on your service through one of the popular social media tools? If the answer is no, jump to it and explore what the possibilities that could be as the competition may already be a step ahead of you.

The statistics you hear in the media regarding mobile computing are undeniable. As more and more people around the globe are becoming connected, existing and potential customers will only be one click away from requiring customer service. Stay ahead of the game and service those customers to keep them happy through some of the solutions mentioned above. Strong customer satisfaction will help to enhance retention rates and potentially bring in new customers.